Do carbon wheels make you faster? A ride report

[fa63]

Tires can actually make a very substantial difference, especially if you go from riding something like the Conti Gatorskin with heavy butyl tubes to Conti GP5000 (or similar) with latex tubes or tubeless.

Carbon aero wheels are more of a marginal gain for the speeds that most of us ride at.

And of course nothing beats a nice 20 mph tailwind

Originally Posted by Philster

Great light hearted post. I have some bikes, wheels and tires that always make me faster on my normal loops. I always wonder if they are actually faster or just motivate me to work harder for some reason. I’m not going to try to analyze it for fear of ruining the magic.

[wyatt_]

Originally Posted by mdeth1313

Imagine what you could do on a good set of carbon wheels!

I definitely agree. A $2k set of wheels might give me a .2 mph edge lol.

[ojingoh]

Yeaaaah it's not a lot. A lot of things have to link up to get more than .1-.3 mph faster. For most folks a set of HED Belgium/R?S?G?/Ardennes are just as good.

But they look cool.

[mdeth1313]

Originally Posted by wyatt_

I definitely agree. A $2k set of wheels might give me a .2 mph edge lol.

A $2k set of wheels would be a bigger waste. Compared to some other (cheaper options), there's far better than hunt.

[BrazAd]

Undeniable fact about carbon wheels: they LOOK faster! And isn’t that’s what all of this is about, how we look?

Gary


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Robot870]

No wheels will make you faster once the ride gets difficult. BUT!!!!! my CLX50s rolling on Veloflex Pro Tour Race 23mm tubulars sure make my hair stand on end!

[martl]

Originally Posted by dmitrik4

I doubt the material matters as much as the weight and the hubs. There’s nothing magic about carbon.

Two different wheelsets with the same shape, spoke count etc will allow the same exact speed (well add weight to that if your test track has elevation). What does not matter is whether that same shape wheel is made from wood, stone, steel, aluminium, cFK or cookie dough.